(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a paper currency handling apparatus to be mounted on an automatic cash dealing apparatus used in a financial institution, for example.
(2) Description of Related Art
Conventionally, a paper currency handling apparatus mounted on an automatic cash dealing apparatus used in a financial institution, for example comprises: a paper currency deposit and withdrawal port functioning to let out paper currencies deposited by a user one by one and functioning to discharge withdrawn paper currencies; a paper currency discrimination part discriminating deposited paper currencies or withdrawn paper currencies; a temporary housing for temporarily housing the deposited paper currency; a reject box housing rejected paper currencies which do not reach a predetermined standard at the paper currency discrimination part; a recycle box housing/storing the deposited paper currencies and letting out them as withdrawn paper currency; and a paper currency conveyance path bringing those respective units into connection.
In such a paper currency handling apparatus, diversification in monetary type and increase in capacity have progressed recently. Thereby, a recycle box is generally arranged in line in the lower part of the apparatus and the other portions are arranged by being integrated into the upper unit in the upper part of the paper currency handling apparatus (see JP-A-2003-208654).
In the paper currency deposit and withdrawal machine in the above described patent document, a paper currency deposit and withdrawal port, a paper currency discrimination part and a temporary housing are arranged in an upper unit in the upper part of the apparatus to discriminate the deposited paper currency with the paper currency discrimination part and convey the paper currency discriminated as acceptable to the temporary housing. Therefore, the deposit and withdrawal port and the temporary housing are arranged to sandwich the paper currency discrimination part in this order. Thus, in general, in a paper currency deposit and withdrawal machine, a deposit and withdrawal port, a paper currency discrimination part and a temporary housing are arranged in this order from the head of the apparatus.
Here, in order to discriminate paper currencies with the paper currency discrimination part to convey only acceptable paper currencies to the temporary housing, it is necessary to sort the paper currencies to the conveyance destinations based on the discrimination results of the paper currency discrimination part. And a certain amount of time is required for discrimination with a paper currency discrimination part. It is necessary to sort paper currencies to the temporary housing or the deposit and withdrawal port after a wait until a discrimination result is obtained after a paper currency passes the paper currency discrimination part. In order to buy time for the certain amount of time, the back stage of the paper currency discrimination part is provided with a conveyance path for buying time and that back stage of the conveyance path is provided with sorting branch paths. In order to provide that conveyance path, it is necessary to make the upper unit of the paper currency deposit and withdrawal machine large in the longitudinal direction or in the vertical direction.
However, in the recent years, reduction in size and increase in capacity for reducing size in the entire size of the paper currency deposit and withdrawal machine and increasing the paper currency housing capacity is required. Therefore, increase in size of the upper unit has been against the demand from the market.